"Against the background of the Second World War, The Invasion takes place in an affluent New England town, where generations of Yankees have dedicated themselves to high moral purpose, and everyone knows his or her place. But in 1938 the suicide of the Austrian refugee groundskeeper at the Parker Farm School reveals a darker side beneath the surface of comfort and security. In increasingly anxious times, old ways must change. Jenny Oliver struggles to understand appearance and reality in the world around her, including her own uneasy parents. The noblesse oblige showered on the refugees clashes with the festering prejudice against the Jewish school treasurer and the retarded American-born German boy, whom the neighborhood children call the Beasty. The community faces its own war of bigotry and hypocrisy, making a sham of the school motto: Before all else be true."--Page 4 of cover.